Help from the unexpected
by JinxSaw
Summary: "Gabby Hammond is an anorexic cow," her lips mouthed the words silently, as tears burnt behind her eyes. She clenched her teeth angrily. Who could do such a thing? Only Zabini... Rated M for mature content, trigger warning Ana and Mia.
1. Prologue

**Help from the unexpected**

**WARNING: Contains mature content, possible trigger warning for anorexia/ bulimia. If you are in any way affected by the symptoms seen here, or suspect someone of suffering from an eating disorder, then please seek professional help.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or Warner Bros., and am in no way affiliated with either parties.**

Prologue

Gabby sat up in her bed suddenly, and gasped as the adrenaline the nightmare had left in her coursed through her blood. Her head span, and she slowly manoeuvred herself so she was sitting on the edge of the four poster bed, but so that her legs were still within the yellow drapes. She hugged her blankets around her, keeping out the chill that inhabited her body these days. Through the curtains, she could see the faint light of dawn. She stood up, pushing her way into the rest of the room, and looked around at the other three beds in the common room.

Her fellow Hufflepuff girls, Hannah, Susan and Megan, were all still sleeping behind their curtains, and she sneered at them. She knew for sure how their days would go. Wake up, eat, lessons, eat, more lessons, eat even more, homework, then bed and, possibly, more eating... She didn't know how people could live like that, eating that much... It was disgusting.

She moved into the bathroom, keeping her blankets wrapped around her and locked the door, before unwrapping herself from the cackoon and taking off her night clothes. She looked at her naked form in the mirror, and ran her fingers over her ribs, enjoying the feel of her bones. She frowned when her hands still found themselves sinking into her when she touched her stomach. She needed to get rid of the fat.

She stepped onto the scales, almost dreading looking down at the numbers that would tell her what she already knew. She was fat. An abomination. She should be dead. She'd rather be dead than fat.

Gabby looked down quickly, and heaved a sigh of relief. She still weighed just under 100 pounds. She hadn't gained. But her relief was soon replaced by annoyance. She still hadn't lost! Not since last month!

Tears threatened to fall, but she wouldn't let them. She was strong, and that was why she wasn't as fat as all the pigs she shared a room with. Although why their repulsive eating habits hadn't transferred onto her, not once in almost six full years.

Even when filled with fear, she had stayed strong through petrification, through a murderer breaking into the school, through the death of one of her housemates, the rise of the Dark Lord and torture by Umbridge. Nothing would make her crack. She was strong, and she could cope.

She stepped into the bathtub, turning on the shower head and feeling the warm water that seeped over her cold body like an antidote. The water wasn't harsh, it wasn't judging her... Maybe she should just stay here...

But the hammering on the door soon brought her back to reality, and she left the bathroom in the hands of Hannah Abbot, by far the chubbiest girl in the dorm room. Gabby wanted to tell her about how she managed to stay like she did, wanted to share her secret... But she knew Hannah wouldn't understand, knew she would tell an adult that there was Something Wrong.

But there was nothing really wrong with Gabby Hammond. Not to her, anyway.


	2. Chapter 1

Help from the unexpected

WARNING: Contains mature content, possible trigger warning for anorexia/ bulimia. If you are in any way affected by the symptoms seen here, or suspect someone of suffering from an eating disorder, then please seek professional help.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or Warner Bros., and am in no way affiliated with either parties.

Chapter One

Monday mornings, Gabby reflected, were the worst. The smell of the cooked breakfast would drift through the door from the kitchen and make her hungry. Make her really hungry. So, on a Monday morning after weighing herself, she would eat half a low calorie breakfast bar while running her hand under boiling water to put her off wanting to eat more.

Her Monday ritual finished with her reaching into her wash bag and pulling out her second toothbrush, plain with a discoloured end. She leant over the toilet, and began the act of purging her system. She needed to rid her body of anything that could make her gain.

Gabby flushed the toilet, and looked at her face in the small mirror. High and defined cheekbones framed her face, with large dark eyes and full lips. She quickly hid the toothbrush, and left the bathroom to go to the Great Hall.

"Hey!" Gabby looked around at the sound of her friend Lavender Brown calling her over to the Gryffindor table where she sat picking at a slice of dry toast. She smiled back, and headed towards her friend. Lavender was naturally skinny, something Gabby had always been envious of. Despite her envious waist coming naturally to her, Lavender still didn't eat much, just some toast at breakfast and the vegetables at dinner, no lunch and no desserts. Gabby was friends with her because she didn't have a bad influence on her diet.

"Morning, Lav." She dropped down onto the bench, and poured herself a glass of water. She sipped it slowly, knowing that drinking too fast would make her throw up again. Lavender was watching the doors, which wasn't too unnatural for her at the moment. Gabby instinctually knew that it was because of a boy. Lavender confirmed her thoughts a few seconds later when she suddenly squealed, and clutched Gabby's arm, spilling her drink.

"It's him," she hissed, her grip vice like on her friends arm. Gabby looked confused. "Ron Weasley!" Before Gabby could stop her, Lavender had her arm in the air and was waving the boy and his friend over to them. She smiled triumphantly at Gabby, as Ron and Harry Potter head over to where they were sitting, and quickly said hello.

They sat down opposite the two girls. Ron immediately began to pile his plate up with bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns and black puddings. Gabby felt sick looking at him shovelling all that food into his mouth. She quickly looked away, and saw Harry eating treacle tart. She glanced at Lavender, who had stopped paying attention to what she was eating, and started stealing bits of sausage off Ron's plate. No help from there then.

Hermione was wandering up the table towards the boys, and Gabby noticed there was no space for her to sit. She drained her glass of water, before muttering a quick "bye!" at a preoccupied Lavender.

She left quickly, ducking through a tapestry next to the staircase, which she knew would lead to just outside the charms classroom.

The corridor was dark, which was normal, and cold, which was also normal. What wasn't normal was the figure leaning up against the wall.

"Hammond," nodded the boy in Gabby's direction. She frowned, unsure of how to proceed. His large frame was blocking most of the passageway, and there was no way for her to pass. She nodded back to him, hoping he would move. There seemed to be no such luck.

"Please move," she said, sternly. "I need to get to my lesson." The shadow laughed, and a wand tip lit up in the dark. Curses, she thought. "Please, Zabini." He tilted his head to the left, looking at her like she had seen other people look at food. He still didn't move.

Gabby turned around, eager to leave the situation she had unwittingly placed herself in, only to find that the tapestry had turned to stone for the time being. _Well_, she thought, _wasn't that convenient_.

"I think we need a little chat, Hammond," he said, and contoured up a couple of chairs in the corridor. "Sit." She refused. He sighed, and pointed his wand at her. "I said, sit." The command was more forceful, and she felt a numbing sensation spread throughout her brain. When it left, she was sitting on the sofa next to Zabini. _The Imperius Curse_, she realised with horror.

"Gabby," he said to her, almost kindly. "I know what's happening to you. My sister did it too. She got help, though. You need help, too." She shook her head. There was nothing wrong with her.

She voiced this thought, and Zabini shook his head sadly. "Yes, there is." She stood, and tried to push past him, but he held her in place easily. "She how I'm keeping you here? Other people could do much worse than this."

Gabby knew what he was implying and understood his concern. Although it wasn't common knowledge, a few people knew that Zabini's sister, Carla Dobinski, had been raped when she was 15 in Diagon Alley one holiday. She had been a small child, practically skin and bones. She had been discovered to be pregnant.

Her mother had been furious at first, but testing had shown the her rapist had been a pureblood. Because of the stigma attached to her family, her mother had forced her to carry on with the pregnancy. To say she had been miserable is an understatement. She was near comatose for months, until she killed herself shortly before her sixteenth birthday.

She would have been 18 tomorrow.

"I can fight," she mumbled. Zabini snorted.

"Against thugs like Crabbe and Goyle? Or McLaggen? Please, Gabby. I'm worried for you."

"Then let me get to class. I don't want to be in trouble." He released her wrists reluctantly, and stepped backwards, allowing Gabby to rush on through the passage to her charms class.

"I will help you, Gabby," Zabini muttered under his breath. "For Carla, I will help you.


End file.
